ADAMS: Senator Wong, good afternoon to you. Thank you for joining us.
WONG: Good to be with you again.
ADAMS: Now, firstly on interest rates, weve seen the NAB cut rates this afternoon. Is it enough and do you expect that the other banks will follow suit?
WONG: I have to say if you were an NAB home loan customer youd have every right, wouldnt you, to feel pretty short changed with the bank not passing on the rate cut in full. Banks should be doing the right thing by their customers and I think when you see banks not passing on rate cuts in full, thats something customers have got every right to complain about. And what Id say to people in this period is have a look around weve done a lot of work to try and improve competition have a look at what else is out there.
ADAMS: Beside urging the banks to pass it on, as you are doing, what else can the Government do to ensure that that does happen, if anything?
WONG: Governments dont regulate banks interest rates and there are reasons for that, but what we can do is continue to say to the banks, look, do the right thing by your customers. But of course the thing the Government has to do is to run good fiscal policy, make sure we run the budget well because thats what enables the Reserve Bank to have the flexibility to move on interest rates should it wish to do so. So our job is to make sure we run good budget policy and well be handing down a budget surplus next week.
ADAMS: And Senator we saw the ANZ post a first half profit of nearly $3 billion today. With figures like that, surely banks can afford to pass on the full cut?
WONG: And I think this is the difficulty for the banks, isnt it Amelia? People out there say I understand youve got to run a business, but youre not passing on the rate cut in full to me... Im your customer and it looks like youre making a pretty reasonable profit. So I think the banks have really got to make sure they do the right thing by their customers. And again what Id say is there is competition in this market and people should shop around for the best rate they can.
ADAMS: Good advice. Now Senator, onto another matter. We now know that Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne had drinks with James Ashby before he filed those corruption claims against the Speaker. Was that appropriate?
WONG: Theres certainly been a lot in the media in the last 24 hours and it seems to be, to someone whos just been reading the media... I havent spoken to Christopher about this obviously ... Its seems to be a little inconsistent, the different things that have been said over the time. I think really those questions should be put to Christopher Pyne they are questions he should answer.
ADAMS: He has said, Mr Pyne, that the more contacts he has in the Speakers office, the better. Is there anything wrong with that?
WONG: I suppose thats one way of looking at it but as I said I think Mr Pyne should be answering questions about the sort of engagement and type of contact he had with Mr Ashby.
ADAMS: Alright Senator Penny Wong, we will leave it there, thank you very much for your time this afternoon.
WONG: Good to speak with you again.
ENDS